The maximum life span of a band is 10 years

  I don't care who you are, how talented you can be or how cutting edge your sound is, when it comes to music you have a decade of greatness ... no more, if you can even make it that far!  Just think of all the great groups who went past their eras, two things can happen, they either become completely obsolete playing a sad version of their heyday music, or they attempt to jump on the next band wagon that are rebelling away from the old and becoming the new, like rock 'n' rollers trying to be hippies or punks playing new wave ... It just doesn't work.  Who in the f*ck wants to go on forever, shaking their old wrinkled asses on stage for screaming wasted weirdos ... only one type of person, the ego moniacle whoring rock giant that needs constant undeserving worship to keep their spoilt baby world from tearing apart, forgetting what made them initially brilliant in the first place ... but I get it, they're artists, there isn't much else that they can do but play music and try to stay relevant!

Gram Parsons -- Grievous Angel

  I have truly become heartbroken, why you ask, the answer is simple, I think I'm starting to understand country music, it's beautiful acceptance of misery, unlike blues which is more aggressive, seems to be speaking to me, and Parsons found a way to make it cool again, much like Neil Young, but with a more tortured martyr style.  

American vs. British Punk: The final word!!

  Ok I'm just going to get down to the brass tacks, forget all the exceptions and rationals, there's good and bad on both sides of the fence, I'm doing an overall generalization.  In the end, with NO arguments allowed, the Americans take it all by a landslide, not only for being the forerunners from way back, but for playing a more rhythmic, relatable version that stood the test of time, the Brits are just too robotic, political and pseudo-glamorous ... case closed ... America (fuck ya)!

1966 the REAL year Punk broke!

  By '66 the world was already over folk rock and getting sick of beat groups, at that time there were already new cool fuzzed out sounds pumping out of America, so by 1966 rock had found a new bad ass phase, Garage punk, which showed up, took over, and disappeared for 10 years.  You had groups like The Seeds, The Count Five, The Standells, The Music Machine ... etc, playing a faster, louder, more primitive version of rock 'n' roll than any other band at the time ... Even The Beatles did a their infamous butcher babies cover for Yesterday And Today that featured a couple of fuzztoned numbers showing that the masses were possibly ready for the punk rock ethos, but then the summer of love hit, setting us forward again, but as the years passed the hippie bullshit piled up too high and it was back to basics a decade later!

1971 the year modern music was born ... and the 3 decades it took to get it back

  1971 the year of Serge Gainsgourg's Melody Nelson and Can's Tago Mago.  Man rock 'n' roll had made leaps and bounds with these two albums, but the world wasn't ready yet for such futuristic sounds and beats, we were still worshipping Americana and on the cusp of going crazy for glam rock. Even with the decades to come nothing had yet to come out that sounded so dateless and fresh.  It wasn't until the mid to late 90's that this music would show its weary head again with Beck, Stereolab and Air ... then later on with Radiohead's duel landmark albums (Kid A and Amnesiac), everybody jumped in the boat, declaring it new, vibrant and weird, forgetting about its forerunners 30 years earlier ... who did it first!

The Period Of No Music ... Pun intended? Bet Your Ass It Is!

  I'm sure every music lover, and especially the super snobby delicate album collector go through bouts of this, which I'm currently in, THE PERIOD OF NO MUSIC, which can last up to a couple days or even a week ... usually -- for me at least! He he he (get it?)!  What brings on such a symptom can vary from the good old fashioned being sick of listening after a large music bing eg. long drives, to the depressed 'nothing I hear could ever please me' to my current superstition fuelled state of 'I haven't played a record since that job interview and I won't until I hear back' paranoia, ridiculous I know, but I like to rationalize it as Crowleyian-esque ritual, who knows it's probably a bunch of bunk jive bullsh*t, but we all act a little funny in tough times of life, let's just hope it works ... at least I've got film and books to fall back on to fill the void!

Richie Havens -- Alarm Clock

  You know I haven't had dibs on Sunday garage sale in years, I'm usually way too hungover to make it first thing in the morning but I can thank my summertime cold and the fact that I have to work at noon today for making it early ... point is, I picked up this very 70's folk album by Richie Havens, it sounds like it could be called Van Stevens or Cat Morrison, whichever you prefer!